Conference on Jewish Lamdanut

There is an annual conference at Van Leer on the philosophy of halakhah. This year they issued the call for papers earlier than usual. So far, they have had conferences on Yeshaya Leibowitz, Rav Soloveitchik, Philosophy of Halakhah, Ideology and Halakhah, Conservative Judaism an Halakhah, Halakhah as an Emotional Event, and now this one. It is an academic conference, so many of the papers from Centrists are not accepted. After one of the earlier conferences, a senior RIETS rabbi told said to me, in a somewhat relativist way, about why no one in NY cared about the conferences: “they talk to their friends and we talk to those we are comfortable to.” Before one of the early conferences, a known Centrist speaker wanted to determine who should speak based his list of acceptable Centrist speakers. Van Leer responded by saying “You make yourself stupid” and showed him the door.
Which of the proposed list of questions are great questions? Which questions should be there?

One response to “Conference on Jewish Lamdanut”

Maybe it’s just because I’m not an academic, maybe it’s a US vs Israel difference, but I thought a lamdan was a teacher, while “lomdus” was erudition, as in a “lomdish drosha.” I see a title like this, and I think it’s about history of education, teaching styles, social standing of teachers, etc.